Board game review: Majesty: For the realm

A quick engine building type game that people explain is a Splendor killer although it’s not really like Splendor, at all.

Majesty: For the Realm
Designer: Marc Andre
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Number of players: 2-4
Type of game: Set collection/Engine Building
Time: 20-30 minutes
Cost: Approximately $30

High level overview: You are drafting cards to place them in your kingdom to score the most amount of points. 

Pros: - cute artwork
- super easy to learn
- Quick to play with a few tough decisions (can feel a little like you are doing calculations to score the most points)
Cons: - cards are small so they are hard to shuffle
- based on the depth of the game and the time it takes to play, people may not like the cost of the game
- feels a little fiddly, my SO really doesn’t like that there are not five point markers in the game

Rules/Gameplay overview: Each player gets the same set of kingdom cards and each player will flip the cards to the same side arranging the cards in a certain order. Then you give five meeples to each player.
You deal six cards out. On each person’s turn, the player will draft a card from the faceup lineup. The first card that you take is free. But you must place a meeple on each card that you pass up to take a card other than the first card. So if you take the third card, you must place a meeple on the first and second card. If you take a card with a meeple on it, you take the meeple and place the meeple in your personal supply. If you have more than five meeples at any time, you exchange the meeple for one point. When you draft the card, you place it in your kingdom under the matching symbol/color and score points as indicated on the card.
You do this 12 times. At the end of the game you score points by squaring the number of kingdom cards that you have played a card in. You also score points for having the majority in each kingdom by looking at the bottom of the kingdom card to score the points.Player with the most points wins.

What does it feel like: So I guess I should explain. You usually score more points as you add more of the same types of cards in your kingdom. The combinations are listed on your kingdom cards. You may score three points for each knight, guard, or witch in your kingdom when you place a card in that kingdom card. So if you have more and more of each of those, your points avalanche. You can score more points.
Because you score points essentially every time that you play a card, you are sort of doing these fast calculations as to how many points each card in your kingdom is going to score. And then you’re also sort of doing the calculations as to whether you are going to score points for going from five kingdom cards to six kingdom cards. And then you are also trying to calculate whether or not you will have the majority.
But does it really feel like all you are doing is quick math? Not really. The game distracts you from focusing on that exact math. You are constantly aware that the math is there in the back of your mind and so there is an optimal card for you to take on a given turn. But obviously you can’t know for sure how the cards are going to come out. And what you are going to set up yourself for in the early turns. You do kind of feel the slog of doing the math on your last couple of turns. But there is a switch that flips before that where you know that it is coming.
Right around the seventh or eighth turn of the game, you realize that the game is coming to an end. As a result, you start sweating about whether you are going to win the game. You may start to do the math but it’s not until about the 10th turn that it really goes full bore.
This doesn’t sound like that much fun? Well, I’m explaining it wrong. It is more fun than you would think. Drafting the card and playing them in their respective kingdom is very simple. But unlocking the combos in the game to maximize the points gets those chemicals in your brain going that make you feel very smart. It’s nice to feel like you are maxing out for scoring the points and finding the smartest way to do it. And it’s over so quick, that you want to play again at the end of it.
Recommended: This is a really fun game, in my opinion. It is super easy to learn and teach. The kingdom cards are very helpful in explaining how you will score points. The actions are very simple. Just drafting a card and placing it in your kingdom. But it’s the combos where you score points and can do other things that makes the game shine. It’s a great introductory game. But more than that, it allows for some light strategy. We play it frequently and like I said, once you play it once, you want to play it immediately, again.